On- and offline networks
This networking was stimulated by two tools that relied heavily on LinkedIn integration; Presdo Match and Bizzabo . Presdo Match was mainly used prior to the event (via the web) to already see which interesting conversation partners you would like to meet at the web summit. You could import your LinkedIn profile on the website and adjust it if desired, 'like' other profiles, send e-mails, make appointments for 17 and 18 October and upload your company presentation.
Bizzabo was mainly used during the event. An ideal app, because via Bizzabo the organization could send updates to visitors (e.g. announce new speakers, room full, wifi overcapacity, etc.). In addition, the program was displayed in the app, you could easily reach your conversation partners and read the latest tweets from visitors. We would have liked to see both tools integrated, because then you wouldn't have had to do everything twice. But we would also like to see a Bizzabo -like app at Dutch events.
Established names, interesting take aways
The Dublin Web Summit featured over 200 speakers. Ranging from established names such as Mozilla, Google, Saatchi & Saatchi to interesting newcomers of recent years such as Mind Candy, Wildfire, Pinterest and Flipboard. Such a laundry list of interesting speakers is hard to summarize! But we have summarized interesting developments with the help of a number of striking quotes from some of the speakers.
Second screen?
The most energetic speaker, despite his jet lag, was David Shing aka Shingy , Digital Prophet at AOL. In his fifteen minute talk he outlined the current landscape and gave his vision for the future. One of the most memorable moments of his talk was his irritation with the term Second Screen .
“Stop calling it Second Screen. You don't see anyone walking around the summit with a bloody television screen in their hand”
He is convinced that mobile will absolutely become first screen .
Mobile is the remote control for people's lives
As a replacement for Kevin Rose, the organization of the websummit managed to get none other than Paul Sciarra , co-founder of Pinterest. His talk with Michael Birch was very interesting, as he wondered out loud whether, with the knowledge of today, they might have been better off developing Pinterest from the mobile first idea.
“We're just realizing the potential of 'network in our pockets'.”
Paul Sciarra was not alone in this. Mobile was 'the talk of the town' in every panel discussion and talk. Both about the impact of mobile on daily life, as well as the rise of all kinds of apps, development possibilities for the various operating systems and the future of app stores. Gary Kovacs (CEO of Mozilla ) wondered out loud why we as users do not have control over where we shop for apps ? A fair question, to which there is no clear answer in the short term.
Future of advertising
There was also an impetus to renew the online advertising model . It is remarkable that, since the arrival of the internet, the advertising possibilities have hardly changed and we are still stuck with the standard banners in fixed places (usually the right side) of the screen.
“I think the impression based model of online advertising is flawed. We should work towards an audience based model, this is what were trying to do at Flipboard”. Mike McCue, founder and CEO of Flipboard .
Startups
The future was well represented in the Irish capital, with over 250 startups . There is a lot to turkey telegram data gain for startups in Dublin. In addition to the startup competition (main prize 100,000 dollars), a lot of knowledge was shared and quite a few investors were present, such as Skype founder Niklas Zennström and Michael Birch , who were quite easy to approach for a conversation. Of those 250, unfortunately only a handful of Dutch startups were in Dublin and showpiece Gidsy (with unmanned stand) was assigned to Germany. Here is an overview of 'our' startups:
Foodzy : social food diary with food stats
Layergloss : an online platform to create iPhone and iPad apps (kind of like WordPress for apps)
Silk : tool for structured online information provision
Syndicate Plus : collect and manage product data (B2B)
Joining : social tool to plan activities
Notifica.re : notification tool for all kinds of online services
https://vimeo.com/51867553
Also watch the above video impression of the Dublin Web Summit or this photo impression of the event.